CLDR, Unicode's list of search words, files one emoji under hanukkah: Menorah. None is named dreidel. Hanukkah emoji copy and paste means the menorah and 74 more: dreidel letters, lights, fried food, greeting lines, night counters and ASCII art.
Read the full guide
The dreidel, spelled out
A dreidel carries four Hebrew letters: nun, gimel, he and shin. All are ordinary characters, so Dreidel: no emoji, so the letters has each one, the row of four, and the row ending in pe that Wikipedia's Dreidel article records for Israel. Hebrew runs right to left and can reorder a line. Gimel, the left-to-right one, U+2137, stays where you put it.
Search words and old phones
Search reads Unicode names, CLDR's search words and ours: gelt finds four tiles and latke five. The newest emoji here, Olive and Coin, are Emoji 13.0, and an older phone shows an empty box. Star of David, Candle, Sparkles and Books have a text form, so Text style makes them plain characters.
Tips
Night by night counts the lights, not the helper candle, the shamash. Add one a night: 44 candles in the week.
Emoji refused? Plain text: stars and Hebrew has the Star of David without its emoji selector, βΆ, and Hanukkah in five Hebrew letters.
The ASCII dreidel's face says G because a Hebrew gimel can drag its row to the right margin.
Questions and answers
Is there a dreidel emoji?
No. No emoji is named dreidel, and CLDR has no search word for dreidel or sevivon. Ask it for spin and it offers a bicycle. The nearest tile is Game die, six sides where a dreidel has four. The letters are the better stand-in.
Which emoji count as Hanukkah emoji?
CLDR files exactly one under hanukkah: Menorah, which Unicode also calls hanukiah. It files four under Jewish: the menorah, Star of David, Dotted six-pointed star and Synagogue. Candle answers to candle and light only. Religious symbols has the star as a plain character.
How do I write Happy Hanukkah in Hebrew?
Chag Hanukkah sameach. Wikipedia's list of Jewish greetings gives chag sameach, happy holiday, with the holiday's name allowed in the middle. Happy Hanukkah lines has both in Latin and Hebrew letters, the same emoji at each end so each reads the same in either direction.
π―Dotted six-pointed starU+1F52F. Unicode names it Six pointed star with middle dot and cross-references it to the Star of David. CLDR files it under jewish and under fortune. Emoji 0.6.
πMenorahU+1F54E. The only emoji CLDR files under hanukkah. Unicode's own name for it is Menorah with nine branches, with hanukiah as its second name, so this is the Hanukkah lamp and not the seven-branched one. Emoji 1.0.
β‘οΈStar of DavidU+2721 U+FE0F. One of four emoji CLDR files under Jewish. It has a text form, which takes the colour of your words. Emoji 0.7.
πSynagogueU+1F54D. The fourth emoji CLDR files under Jewish, and the only building among them. Emoji 1.0.
Show all 75 things for Hanukkah (71 more)
Lights, fried food, gelt and gifts 16
πBooksU+1F4DA. Many families exchange a gift each night, such as books or games, by Wikipedia's account. Emoji 0.6.
π―οΈCandleU+1F56F U+FE0F. The only character in Unicode named candle. CLDR gives it two search words, candle and light, and neither is hanukkah. It has a text form. Emoji 0.7.
π§Cheese wedgeU+1F9C0. The same article records a tradition of cheese and other dairy foods during the week. Emoji 1.0.
π«Chocolate barU+1F36B. The other half of chocolate gelt. CLDR files it under candy and sweet. Emoji 0.6.
πͺCoinU+1FA99. For gelt, which is Yiddish for money. CLDR files it under gold, silver and treasure. Emoji 13.0.
π³CookingU+1F373. Unicode's notes give it as frying pan, cooking utensil, and CLDR files it under fry and frying. Emoji 0.6.
π₯FireU+1F525. For the lighting. CLDR files it under flame and lit. Emoji 0.6.
πGlowing starU+1F31F. CLDR files it under glow, night and shining. Emoji 0.6.
πΆMusical notesU+1F3B6. For the songs. Unicode's notes give it as dancing notes, mood, melody. Emoji 0.6.
πNight with starsU+1F303. CLDR gives it three words: night, star and stars. The lights go on after dark, eight nights running. Emoji 0.6.
π«OliveU+1FAD2. For the oil. CLDR's own two emoji for the word oil are an oil drum and the diya lamp, which belongs to a different festival. Emoji 13.0.
π₯PancakesU+1F95E. The nearest emoji to a plate of latkes. Unicode's notes call it hotcakes, crepes, blini, and add sweet or savory. Emoji 3.0.
π₯PotatoU+1F954. What a latke starts as. No emoji and no CLDR search word says latke. Emoji 3.0.
β¨SparklesU+2728. CLDR files it under magic and star. It has a text form. Emoji 0.6.
πWrapped giftU+1F381. Unicode's own name for it is Wrapped present. CLDR files it under birthday and christmas, and not under hanukkah. Emoji 0.6.
Dreidel: no emoji, so the letters 13
ΧΧ¨Χ²ΧΧDreidel in Yiddish: dreydl
Χ Χ Χ Χ€The same row as dreidels in Israel have it, ending in pe
π²Game dieU+1F3B2. No emoji is named dreidel. This is the nearest thing in the games section: six sides where a dreidel has four. CLDR files it under dice, die and game. Emoji 0.6.
ΧGimel, the dreidel letter that winsU+05D2 Hebrew letter gimel. Gantz, whole: the spinner takes everything in the pot.
β·Gimel, the left-to-right oneU+2137 Gimel symbol. The same letter, filed a second time for mathematicians. Hebrew letters run right to left and can reorder the line they land in. This one runs left to right and stays where you put it.
ΧHe, the dreidel letter for halfU+05D4 Hebrew letter he. Halb, half: the spinner takes half the pot. English writes the letter hei or hey as often as he.
Χ Nun, the first dreidel letterU+05E0 Hebrew letter nun. In the game it stands for the Yiddish nisht, nothing: the spinner does nothing.
Χ€Pe, on dreidels in IsraelU+05E4 Hebrew letter pe. Most dreidels in Israel carry this letter in place of shin, which turns there into here.
ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧ¨ΧΧFestival of Lights in Hebrew: Hag HaUrim
ΧΧ ΧΧΧHanukkah in Hebrew, without vowel points
βΆSix pointed black starU+2736 Six pointed black star. A solid six-pointed star from the Dingbats block. Unicode cross-references it to the sextile of astrology and not to the Star of David, so it is a stand-in and nothing more.
β‘Star of David, no emoji selectorU+2721 Star of David. The bare character with no emoji selector after it. Unicode's emoji list calls this form unqualified, so it can arrive as plain text in the colour of your words. Worth a try where a name field refuses emoji.
πβ¨π―οΈβ¨πBorder row, a candle in the middle
π―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈNine candles: eight lights and the helper
π―οΈ Chag Hanukkah sameach π―οΈHappy Hanukkah holiday, Hebrew in Latin letters
β¨ Chag sameach β¨Happy holiday, which fits any festival
π Happy Chanukah πThe same wish in the other common spelling
π Happy eighth night πFor the last night, all eight lit
π Happy Festival of Lights πThe holiday by its other name
π―οΈπ―οΈ Happy first night π―οΈπ―οΈTwo candles a side: the first light and its helper
π Happy Hanukkah from our family to yours πFor a card or a group chat
β‘ Happy Hanukkah β‘No emoji selector: a plain Star of David each side
βΆ Happy Hanukkah βΆNo emoji: a six pointed black star each side
π Happy Hanukkah πA menorah at each end
π₯π³ Latkes are on π³π₯Caption for the frying
β¨ Wishing you light, all eight nights β¨A wish with no holiday name to misspell
Night by night 8
Night 1 of 8 π―οΈFirst night: one light. With the helper, two are burning
Night 2 of 8 π―οΈπ―οΈSecond night: two lights. With the helper, three are burning
Night 3 of 8 π―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈThird night: three lights. With the helper, four are burning
Night 4 of 8 π―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈFourth night: four lights. With the helper, five are burning
Night 5 of 8 π―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈFifth night: five lights. With the helper, six are burning
Night 6 of 8 π―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈSixth night: six lights. With the helper, seven are burning
Night 7 of 8 π―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈSeventh night: seven lights. With the helper, eight are burning
Night 8 of 8 π―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈπ―οΈEighth night: eight lights. With the helper, nine are burning
Hanukkah text art 5
Dreidel, gimel side upG for gimel, the side that takes the pot. A Hebrew letter can pull its whole row over to the right-hand margin, so the face is in Latin. Plain ASCII, 11 columns wide.
Happy Hanukkah sign with nine candlesEight small candles and a tall helper over the greeting. Plain ASCII, 21 columns wide.
Menorah, all eight litNine branches, the helper in the middle and a step higher. Plain ASCII, 17 columns wide.
Menorah, first nightThe helper and one light. Wikipedia's Hanukkah article records that the first light goes on the right and each later one is added to its left.
Six-pointed star in slashesTwo triangles, eight lines of slashes and underscores. Plain ASCII, 13 columns wide.
Hanukkah combos 9
ππππππππA gift a nightWrapped gift 8 times. One for each of the eight nights.
πͺπ«πͺChocolate geltCoin, then chocolate bar, then coin. There is no chocolate coin emoji, so here is one of each.
π²π«πͺDreidel stakesGame die, then chocolate bar, then coin. The pot can be any small thing: Wikipedia's Dreidel article lists chocolate gelt, pennies and raisins. The die stands in for the top that has no emoji.
β¨πβ¨Festival of lights, in threeSparkles, then menorah, then sparkles. The one Hanukkah emoji with light on both sides.
π₯π«π³Latke nightPotato, then olive, then cooking. Potato, oil, pan. Wikipedia's Hanukkah article records foods fried in oil, olive oil for preference, as the custom.
π₯πLight itFire, then menorah. CLDR files Fire under lit, which for once is literal.
πΆπ―οΈπΆSongs by candlelightMusical notes, then candle, then musical notes. The candle, with singing on both sides of it.
How this list was compiled: Built by script on 2026-09-19, not typed by hand. The emoji, their names, code points and Emoji version numbers come from emoji-test.txt, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/emoji/emoji-test.txt); names are the CLDR short names printed in that file, in sentence case. The search words are from the CLDR English annotations (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotations/en.xml and https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotationsDerived/en.xml, main branch). CLDR lists the word hanukkah for one emoji, the menorah, and the word Jewish for four (synagogue, star of David, menorah, dotted six-pointed star). No emoji name and no CLDR search word holds dreidel, sevivon, chanukah, latke or gelt. The first group is those four and nothing else; the second is our own choice of lights, foods and gifts. The text forms come from emoji-variation-sequences.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-variation-sequences.txt). Every character that is not an emoji was checked against UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), and a note that names a character uses its name from that file. That file names U+1F54E Menorah with nine branches, and NamesList.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/NamesList.txt), gives hanukiah as its second name. The same two files supply the cross-references between the two six-pointed star emoji, the note on Six pointed black star, the other names of Pancakes, Cooking and Musical notes, and the direction of each letter: the Hebrew letters are right-to-left, Gimel symbol is left-to-right. Facts about the holiday were read on Wikipedia and are stated as what the articles record: eight nights, fried and dairy foods, latkes, sufganiyot, gelt, gifts, the Hebrew spelling and the name Festival of Lights with its Hebrew (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah); the first light on the right, and 44 lights in all counting the helper (same article); the nine branches and the helper candle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah_menorah); the four dreidel letters, the phrase they stand for, the letter pe in Israel, the Yiddish rule words and the Hebrew and Yiddish words for the top (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreidel); Hag sameach and its Hanukkah form (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_greetings). Hebrew words are spelled without vowel points, letter by letter from UnicodeData.txt. The 16 greeting lines, 8 night counters, 5 ASCII drawings and 9 combos are this site's own work: the emoji in them are fetched by name from emoji-test.txt and the drawings were made for this page. All sources were checked on 2026-09-19. Licence: own work